BTCC 2023 Round 10 - Brands Hatch GP

The 2023 title fight between Tom Ingram (#01) and Ash Sutton (#116) came down to the last round at Brands Hatch running the Grand Prix layout. Ingram began the weekend with a 45-point deficit sitting on 353 points and needed everything to go right. Sutton on the other hand only needed to bring it home without conceding too much to Ingram. Jake Hill, having been consistent all year sat just 23 points behind Ingram on 330.

Brands Hatch is an iconic venue for British motorsport, having previously hosted the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986. Brands is a clockwise circuit with 9 turns, 6 right and 3 left, with medium and slower speed corners in the first half of the lap, before opening up to the straights and fairly high-speed corners of the GP section. The most famous turn is T1, Paddock Hill. After crossing the start finish line, drivers are greeted by the dramatic change in altitude before rising back up into the hairpin of T2, Druids. For this round each driver had 4 sets of the soft compound tyre and 8 sets of the Medium.

Ash Sutton maintained his incredible qualifying form placing his Alliance Racing Ford on pole, clear of P2 by 0.200 seconds. This was Ash Suttons sixth pole position of the season, more than half of the potential in a season! Tom Ingram qualified P3 behind Rory Butcher, and Jake Hill in P8.

Race One was a clash of titans once again, capitalising on an early lunge on Butcher into T2, Ingram was on the hunt to claim the top step for race 1. Attempting another late braking lunge to force Sutton wide into T4, Ingram battled for what would become his last chance at taking the lead. Despite being under constant pressure from Ingram, Sutton commanded the pace and held Ingram behind all the way to the chequered flag, even with a late safety car period.

I hope this insight into the first race of the 2023 BTCC finale was interesting. I plan on doing reviews like this for the 2024 season as well as going into more detail. If you have any questions after reading this post, feel free to contact me!